Tech Roundup: Facebook Ad Discrimination, Project Verify & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

Alphabet/Google:

• Releases a new Blog Compass app for Android to allow users manage their sites and find interesting topics to write about based on Google's trending topics.
• Launches experimental travel website called Touring Bird to find free activities in new cities.
• Releases a new What-If tool to propel biases in machine learning models.
• Partners with Samsung to make their respective RCS platforms compatible in the search giant's latest push towards rich messaging.
• Remotely turns on Battery Saver setting for a bunch of users who Android devices running Android 9 Pie without their consent; says it was an internal experiment that was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended.
• Joins Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance to build an Android-based operating system that runs the cars' entertainment and GPS systems (not to be confused with Android Auto, which is a mobile app that casts your phone onto the car's dash).

Amazon:

• Launches Scout, a machine learning-powered Pinterest-like visual shopping tool with an aim to improve recommendations based on user input (thumbs up/down).
• Begins stuffing home page and search results page with sponsored ads and Amazon branded products as it increasingly continues to make money off advertising.
• Begins looking into claims that employees delete bad reviews for cash as much as US$ 2,000; says "anyone in violation of our Code faces discipline, including termination and potential legal and criminal penalties."
• Faces fresh E.U. antitrust probe over how the company uses data from sellers on its third-party marketplace.
• Gets into fast(er) fashion in collaboration with Nicopanda to use its March by Amazon screen-printing business to immediately buy T-shirts seen on the runway.

Apple:

• Releases iOS 12 with improved performance, grouped notifications, Siri Shortcuts and better digital wellbeing tools.
• Pays in full US$ 14.5 billion in back taxes that it owes to Ireland, two years after European Commission ruling, for entering into sweetheart tax deals with the country.
• Updates Apple Music with support for Android Auto, as Google Maps gains CarPlay support.

Facebook:

• Begins fact-checking images and videos after Russia is accused of using memes and viral images to influence U.S. mid-term elections; makes use of advances in computer vision, OCR and natural language recognition to better identify text within images and take them down.
• Gets accused by American Civil Liberties Union for gender discrimination by allowing employers to target ads to (mostly younger) men, to the exclusion of (mostly older) women and gender non-binary job-seekers; comes weeks after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a complaint over the company's advertising practices for violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing ads to discriminate against some protected groups.
• Reportedly pressed financial firms to use customer data available on its Messenger platform (primarily the Messenger bots that users can reach out to businesses) for advertising purposes, reports The Wall Street Journal.
• Fights back against U.S. government request to break Messenger's end-to-end encryption so as to eavesdrop on a suspect's voice conversations in a criminal probe, once again rearing the issue of whether companies can (and should) deliberately weaken their products' security to enable surveillance.

In other news:

• A group of security researchers find 24 iOS apps that pushed data to 12 different location-data monetisation firms, companies that collect precise location data from application users for profit.
• Major U.S. cellular carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile US and Sprint, unveil Project Verify, a new system that would let them manage user logins to any third-party website or service that integrates with the service. (Kind of like Facebook and Google sign-in you see on other websites, but who would trust carriers with any of this information?)
• Fortnite, one of the most popular games right now, becomes the reason for as many as 200 divorces.
• Ride-hailing service Lyft cross 1 billion trips (weeks after rival Uber crossed the 10 billion mark); begins integrating public transit info in the app.
• TripAdvisor turns into a social media platform for travel lovers; unveils plans for a brand new redesign that puts people front and centre.
• Android handset maker and fourth largest smartphone vendor Xiaomi invites criticism after putting ads in Settings menu; says “advertising has been and will continue to be an integral part of Xiaomi's Internet services” and “that ads should be unobtrusive, and users always have the option of receiving fewer recommendations.” (While it can be intrusive, it's no different from Amazon's ad-supported Kindles.)
• Popular note taking service Evernote just slashed 54 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce as it struggles to make a turnaround.
• Vivo announces V11 with in-display fingerprint sensor and a waterdrop-shaped notch; OnePlus adds in-display fingerprint sensor but kills headphone jack slot in upcoming OnePlus 6T to make way for a bigger battery, in addition to developing its first smart TV.
• Twitter brings bookmarks to the web, in addition to testing a new experience for desktop web.
• Tor Browser comes to Android in alpha form.
• Microsoft briefly tests warning message in Windows 10 that asks users to stick to Microsoft Edge and not install Chrome or Firefox (similar to its push to force Windows 10 Mail users to use Edge for all email links by default, which it reversed after backlash).
• Walmart relaunches jet.com two years after its acquisition with three-hour deliveries in its latest bid to dethrone Amazon in the retail market; acquires on-demand grocery delivery service Cornershop for US$ 225 million.
• Mozilla releases a new VR-based web browser called Firefox Reality.
• Altaba, the holding company of what Verizon left behind after its acquisition of Yahoo!, agrees to settle all ongoing legal cases related to 2013-2014 data breaches for US$ 47 million; comes months after 23-year-old Canadian hacker Karim Baratov who pled guilty to a massive spear-phishing operation of Yahoo employees, which ultimately resulted in 500 million accounts being compromised, was sentenced to five years in prison.